GB2415859A

GB2415859A - Mobile phone with event notification means.

Info

Publication number: GB2415859A
Application number: GB0414542A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Timo Rastas
Original assignee: Nokia Oyj
Current assignee: Nokia Oyj
Priority date: 2004-06-29
Filing date: 2004-06-29
Publication date: 2006-01-04
Anticipated expiration: 2024-06-29
Also published as: GB2415859B; GB0414542D0

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for alerting of an event. The method comprises launching in a device a first alerting signal in response to an event. Furthermore, the method comprises starting a timer set to a time. Furthermore, the method comprises outputting a second alerting signal in the device when the time expires. The present invention further relates to a device configured to launch a first alerting signal in response to an event, to start a timer set to a time and to output a second alerting signal in the device when the time expires.

Description

Alerting of an incoming event

Field of the invention

The invention relates to alerting of an event In particular, the Invention relates to alerting of an incoming event In a device, such as alerting of an incoming call In a communication device, for example In a mobile terminal

Background of the Invention

User equipment (UE), for example a mobile terminal, such as a mobile station (MS), a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or the like, or other terminals, such as a personal computer (PC), may be used to access a communication network A user may use user equipment for tasks such as for making and receiving phone calls, for receiving and sending data from and to the network and for experiencing multimedia content or otherwise using multimedia services The operation of user equipment may be controlled by means of an appropriate user interface such as control buttons, voice commands and so on. User equipment may be provided with a display for displaying Images and other graphical Information for the user of the user terminal Camera means may be provided for capturing still or video Images Speaker means may also be provided User equipment may Include an antenna for wordlessly receiving and transmitting signals from and to base stations of a mobile communication network Furthermore, a user terminal Is typically provided with a processor entity and memory means An Incoming call or message attempting to reach user equipment may typically be notified to a user of the user equipment by means of an alerting tone, such as a ring tone or the like User equipment, such as mobile terminals, may be capable of generating natural sounding ring tones Examples of natural sounding tones may comprise, but are not limited to, polyphonic musical Instrument digital Interface (MIDI) synthesis or recorded sound clips. These ring tones may sound good, but they also may blend In environmental sounds too well This may fail their designed function of alerting the user of incoming calls and the user may not notice an Incoming call Conventional "buzzer tones" may sound distinctive from the environmental sounds and using them may alleviate the problem but the sound may be unpleasant and impersonal. In an alternative or additionally, the user can Increase volume of the ring tone Some hybrid ring tones with MIDI and buzzer tones mixed together exist on the markets The known hybrid ring tones require agreement with the content provider There Is a need for alternative ways of alerting a user of a device about an event, such as an incoming call or message or the like

Summary of the Invention

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there Is provided a method for alerting of an event The method comprises launching In a device a first alerting signal In response to an event. Furthermore, the method comprises starting a timer set to a time. Furthermore, the method comprises outputting a second alerting signal In the device when the time expires.

In accordance with another aspect of the Invention, there Is provided a device configured to launch a first alerting signal In response to an event, to start a timer set to a time and to output a second alerting sgnaMn the device when the time expires.

In an embodiment, the timer set to a second time Is started after the second alerting signal has been output. In an embodiment, the first alerting signal may be output repeatedly or continuously until a predetermined action is taken In response to the event The step of starting the timer and the step of outputting the second alerting signal may be repeated until a predetermined action Is taken In response to the event The timer may be reset, when a predetermined action Is taken In response to the event In an embodiment, the first alerting tone may comprise a natural sounding ring tone. The second alerting signal may comprise a buzzer tone In an embodiment, the first alerting signal may be launched In response to one of an Incoming call or message In a communication device, an alarm of a communication device, an alarm of an alarm clock and an alarm of a monitoring device The first alerting signal may be launched In response to an Incoming call In a mobile terminal

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described In further detail, by way of example only, with reference to the following examples and accompanying drawings, In which figure 1 shows an example of user equipment In which the embodiments of the Invention may be Implemented, and figure 2 shows a flow chart Illustrating an embodiment of the Invention

Detailed description of preferred embodiments

Figure 1 shows an example of user equipment 1 provided with a display 2 and control buttons 3 The user equipment 1 comprises radio reception and transmission means, such as an antenna 4 Furthermore, a processor entity 6 and memory means 7 are provided figure 1 shows only one exemplifying user equipment In which the embodiments of the Invention may be Implemented The user equipment of Figure 1 has a form of a mobile terminal It shall be appreciated that the type of the user equipment may differ substantially from what Is shown In Figure 1 The radio reception and transmission means may as well be built In the casing of the user equipment The control buttons may be positioned In an appropriate manner depending on the user equipment type, size and use, for example The control buttons may be of any appropriate form The user equipment may as well be any other user equipment, for example a PDA Furthermore, In connection with this Invention, the terms device and user equipment may also comprise other types of devices being able to alert a user thereof with an alerting tone No reception and transmission means are necessarily Included Examples of such devices may comprise, but Is not limited to, an alarm clock and a monitoring device It has now been found that the above explained problems and Issues may be addressed by complementing a first alerting signal, such as a ring tone, with a second alerting signal, such as a buzzer tone, after a predetermined delay The first alerting tone Is preferably a natural sounding ring tone, such as polyphonic MIDI ring tone or a recorded ring tone, for example WAV (Windows Audio File), AMR (Adaptive Mult-Rate), WB-AMR (W'deband AMR) or MP3 ring tone A user can respond to the natural sounding ring tone, but If the natural sounding ring tone goes unnoticed for a predetermined period the user will additionally hear a buzzer tone.

Figure 1 shows additionally alerting means 8, such as a sound creating device, and a timer 9, such as a count down timer, which may be used for Implementing embodiments of the invention The alerting means 8 and/or the timer 9 may be connected omncluded In the processor entity 6 and/or the memory means 7 of the user equipment 1 In an alternative, the alerting means 8 and/or the timer 9 may be a separate element In the user equipment 1 or even an external device figure 2 shows a flow chart Illustrating an embodiment of the Invention In step 200, an event, such as an incoming call, message or alarm, launches a first alerting signal, such as a natural sounding ring tone, In alerting means of user equipment In step 202, a count down timer set to a first time Is started. If no predetermined action, such as responding the Incoming call or acknowledging the alarm, In response to the event Is taken, a second alerting signal, such as a buzzer tone, Is played by the alerting means In step 204 In step 206, the count down timers set to a second time and started again If no predetermined action Is taken In response to the event, the second alerting signal Is played again In step 204 Steps 204 and 206 are repeated as long as the first alerting signal continues alerting The timer Is reset, when the first alerting signal stops In step 208 The predetermined action in response to the event may be taken In any stage of the embodiment, step 210 The event launching the first alerting signal may comprise any event to be notified to a user by means of an alerting signal Examples of events may comprise an Incoming call or message In a communication device, such as a mobile terminal or a telephone. Furthermore, examples of events may comprise an alarm of an alarm clock function composed In a mobile terminal or the like, an alarm of another type of alarm clock, an alarm of a montonng device, and so on The predetermined action may comprise responding the Incoming call or acknowledging the alarm or other such action the user may take to react In response to the event The predetermined action may also comprise the first alerting signal terminating For example If a party attempting the Incoming call stops attempting, the first alerting signal typically terminates In a case of an alarm, it may be determined that the alarm automatically stops after a certain period of time Preferably, the second time may be set to a predetermined value In function of the previous time, such as a half of the previous time For example, the first time may be ten seconds If no predetermined action Is taken In response to the event, the timer Is set to five seconds If no predetermined action Is still taken In response to the event, the timer Is set to 2 5 seconds and so on If no predetermined action Is taken In response to the event and the first alerting signal continues to alert, the second alerting signal may finally become continuous Preferably, the first alerting signals played continuously or repeatedly from the launching moment until a predetermined action is taken The first and the second alerting tones may be selectable For example, different natural sounding tones and buzzer tones may be provided In the user equipment memory means Further tone alternatives may be provided, for example, by means of multimedia service (MMS) or another appropriate manner Embodiments of the Invention may enable a user of a device to notice an event, such as an Incoming call, message, clock alarm or other alarm, In various environments In particular, embodiments of the Invention may be advantageous when natural sounding alarm tones are used In an environment where other noise Is present Although the Invention has been described In the context of particular embodiments venous modifications are possible without departing from the scope and spirit of the Invention as defined by the appended claims It should be appreciated that whilst embodiments of the present Invention have mainly been described In relation to mobile terminals, embodiments of the present Invention may be applicable to other types of user equipment that may occur In any appropriate device creating an alerting sound

Claims

Claims 1 A method for alerting of an event, the method composing launching

In a device a first alerting signal In response to an event, starting a timer set to a time, and outputting a second alerting signal In the device when the time expires 2 A method according to claim 1, further composing starting the timer set to a second time after the second alerting signal has been output 3 A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of launching the first alerting signal further comprises outputting the first alerting signal repeatedly or continuously until a predetermined action Is taken In response to the event 4 A method according to any preceding claim, compnsng repeating the step of starting the timer and the step of outputting the second alerting signal until a predetermined action Is taken In response to the event A method according to any preceding claim, further compnsng resetting the timer, when a predetermined action Is taken In response to the event 6 A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the step of launching the first alerting tone composes launching a natural sounding ring tone 7 A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the step of outputting the second alerting signal comprises playing a buzzer tone 8 A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the step of launching comprises launching the first alerting signal In response to one of an incoming call or message In a communication device, an alarm of a communication device, an alarm of an alarm clock and an alarm of a monitoring device 9 A method according to claim 8, wherein the step of launching comprises launching the first alerting signal In response to an Incoming call In a mobile terminal A device configured to launch a first alerting signal In response to an event' start a timer set to a time, and output a second alerting signal in the device when the time expires 11 A device according to claim 10, configured to start the timer set to a second time after the second alerting signal has been output 12 A device according to claim 10 or 11, configured to output the first alerting signal repeatedly or continuously until a predetermined action is taken in response to the event 13 A device according to any of claims 10-12, configured to repeatedly start the timer and output the second alerting signal when the time set in the timer expires until a predetermined action is taken in response to the event 14 A device according to any of claims 10-13, configured to reset the timer, when a predetermined action is taken in response to the event A device according to any of claims 10-14, wherein the first alerting signal comprises a natural sounding ring tone.

16 A device according to any of claims 10-15, wherein the second alerting signal comprises a buzzer tone 17 A device according to any of claims 10-16, configured to launch the first alerting signal in response to one of an incoming call or message or an alarm 18 A device according to any of claims 10-17, compnsng one of a communication device, an alarm clock or a monitoring device 19 A device according to claim 18, comprising a mobile terminal 20 Adevce comprising a timer, alerting means responsive to an event and to the timer, the alerting means configured to output simultaneously at least a first alerting signal and a second alerting signal